Loyalty
by AudioAesthetic
Summary: She likes to think she knows what loyalty is. Susan Bones has always been in love with Harry, even if he doesn't know her name.
1. First Year

**Title:** Loyalty  
**Author:** AudioAesthetic  
**Rating:** T, just to be safe  
**Summary: "**She likes to think she knows what loyalty is." Susan Bones has always been in love with Harry, even if he doesn't know her name.  
**Author's Notes:** This just kinda came out. It has not been betaed, so any mistakes you find are my own, and I'd like to know about them. Please review! I'm planning for it being seven chapters, one for each year. I hope you like it. Thanks! Enjoy!

* * *

It is first year, and Susan Bones is ready.

She buys a brand new cherry wood and unicorn hair wand, a polished, pewter cauldron, and an elf owl named Xavier, whom she dotes on a bit. She has just turned eleven years old, and she feels she is on top of the world.

On the train, a girl with blonde pigtails offers to share her compartment. "I have lollipops," she says politely and with a sweet smile that Susan cannot refuse. "You can have some, if you'd like."

Susan selects a strawberry flavored one and a key lime flavored one, and shares her own assortment of wizarding candy with the girl. Her name is Hannah, and she is Halfblood just like Susan, although it's her mother who's magic, not her father. Susan decides to like her, because she hasn't got anybody else, and because she really likes lollipops.

A tiny speccy boy puts his head in their compartment and blushes in embarassment. "I'm sorry," he says politely. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

He turns to leave, but Susan stops him. He's a first year, too, and probably doesn't have anybody either. "It's all right," she says. "You can stay if you want. I'm Susan Bones, and this is Hannah Abbott, what's your name?"

He grins profusely and introduces himself as Terry Boot. He drags his trunk inside the compartment and sits down, looking pleased with himself.

"I have chocolate bars," Terry says pleasantly. "I would be pleased to share them with you."

Susan giggles at him, and likes his overly formal manner immediately. Hannah laughs and snorts, which makes her laugh more, and Susan likes her too. She hopes they're all in the same house.

As the three of them swap candy, a rumor begins to float down the train that Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts. Hannah and Susan look at each other excitedly, and Terry looks confused.

"Who's Harry Potter?" he wonders. Susan thinks he must be Muggleborn.

Hannah tells him in an excited chatter all about Harry Potter. How he saved the wizarding world from the Darkest wizard of all time when he was just a baby. How he was the only person ever to survive the Killing Curse. How he's been spending his whole life with his horrible Muggle relatives, without even knowing who he is.

Susan marvels at how much Hannah knows just as much as she marvels at the appearance of the famous Harry Potter in her year.

As Hannah chatters on and on to Terry, Susan's mind begins to wander. She's heard about Harry Potter since she was just a baby, and wonders what he's really like. She hopes she catches a glimpse of him. She wonders if she'll know who he is even if she does.

At the castle, Susan and Hannah are quickly Sorted into Hufflepuff, and to her disappointment, Terry leaves them for Ravenclaw. She watches him a bit and sees that he seems quite happy there.

An eager-looking boy named Justin joins them at the table, as do two haughty looking girls named Megan and Sally-Anne, and a pompous but highly amiable boy named Ernie. Susan smiles at Justin, ignores Megan and Sally-Anne, and giggles at Ernie when he nearly rips off an older boy's arm with a handshake. Hannah looks stricken.

Finally, the Great Hall hushes. Professor McGonagall has just called "Potter, Harry," and Susan cannot breathe. What does he look like? What does he talk like? What house will he be in?

A skinny, nervous looking bespectacled boy with jet black, unkempt hair steps up to the stool. He looks around him a bit and disappears modestly under the Hat. He sits, unsure of himself, for a long time, until the Hat calls out, "GRYFFINDOR!" and Harry Potter does something Susan never expected.

He grins, just like a little boy.

Susan has never thought of Harry Potter as a little boy, although she must admit now that he is. A very little one at that. He should probably eat something, she thinks, and finds herself thinking things of that nature for the whole feast.

She barely notices Ernie talking about Muggle-wizard relations with Justin in a very diplomatic manner. She gives an absentminded wave to Terry when he turns to grin at her, and she hardly ever registers when Zacharias, the boy sitting to her left, asks her to pass things.

In bed that night, Susan lies awake staring at the curtains of her four poster bed, listening to Hannah's labored breathing and wonders if Harry Potter is sleeping well. She wishes she had had the courage to talk to him, but what was she supposed to say to him? "Goodnight, thanks for saving us all, and by the way, you should probably eat more vegetables, you look a little emaciated?"

She wonders why she could not help staring at the back of Harry Potter's head all night, or why she has his smile memorized, or why she has a Celestina Warbeck song stuck in her head. And then she knows.

Susan Bones is in love with Harry Potter.

* * *

Susan likes Hogwarts immediately. She is proficient at her classes, her teachers seem to like her (except for Snape, who doesn't seem to like anyone not wearing a serpent), and her classmates are lovely. ...Most of them, anyway.

Hannah quickly becomes her professed best friend, and the two are nearly inseperable. Hannah has taken a liking to Ernie MacMillan, who is friends with Justin Finch-Fletchey, and the four of them create a sort of co-allegance of Hufflepuff first years. They are hardly seen apart.

Susan has gotten used to Ernie's airs, and finds them rather amusing now, though she doesn't argue when people say he's arrogant. Justin, who comes from a well-to-do Muggle family, is as eager to impress as Ernie, but does it with a slightly less put-offish manner. Hannah is a sweetheart who can never find anything mean to say about anyone (even Draco Malfoy, who is a prat).

Terry shares a Potions class with them, and Susan makes a point to visit him and his Ravenclaw friends in the library sometimes. He helps her with her schoolwork, and is the sort of person who will wait until Susan is done talking to sneeze, so as not to interrupt her. He talks about the advice his mother has given him a lot (the woman apparently took it to heart to instill iron-fisted politeness into Terry).

Susan is not sure she likes some of Terry's friends from Ravenclaw. Anthony Goldstein is all right, but she thinks perhaps Michael Corner might be bullying Terry into doing his schoolwork. She tells this to Hannah, who instantly snubs Michael whenever he's awful to Terry, because Hannah knows what loyalty is.

Some of the other Hufflepuffs Susan doesn't like very much, especially Zacharias Smith. Zacharias has a way of making everyone feel stupid with just a raise of his eyebrow, and he has reduced Hannah to tears on one occasion, which is one too many for Susan's liking. Susan is only nice to Zacharias when she thinks it is required of her, because she likes to think she knows what loyalty is, too.

But despite all the people she meets, she cannot help thinking about Harry Potter all the time. Her favorite class is Herbology, because he is there. She memorizes all the rules of Quidditch when he makes the team. She even finds herself hating Hermione Granger when they become friends, because she is allowed to hug him and Susan isn't. She hates herself for thinking these things, hates herself for her obsession with someone whom she's never spoken to, hates herself for being such a girl sometimes.

She thinks it might get better, but it doesn't, and Hannah says that love hardly ever gets better. Susan hopes she's wrong.

* * *

At the first Quidditch match of the year, Susan cheers shamelessly for Gryffindor, but no one notices as they all want Slytherin to lose. Terry has snuck away from the Ravenclaw seats and has brought Anthony with him. Ernie sets upon Anthony about a nasty essay they'd been given in Potions, and what he thinks of Ravenclaw's chances of winning the cup this year. Anthony looks flustered, but Susan thinks Ernie will make a wonderful politician someday anyway.

"I don't mean to be rude, Susan, but why are you yelling so loudly?" Terry asks her when Oliver Wood stops a Slytherin shot. He shuffles his feet a bit apologetically and Susan can't help but laugh.

"I really want Slytherin to lose," she replies, and it's only half of a lie. She really does want that Pansy Parkinson girl to stop looking so smug in Charms while Draco Malfoy makes fun of Harry Potter, and thinks that will probably do it.

Hannah grins at her knowingly, and Susan blushes. Hannah has had her suspicions ever since their first Herbology lesson when Susan could not stop staring at Harry.

"What?" Terry wonders, looking between them increduously. "What is it?"

But Hannah just grins and shakes her head, and Susan thinks she has chosen her best friend right.

"Look!" screeches Aaron Summers, a third year, pointing to the sky. "Look what's happening to Harry Potter!"

Susan immediately searches for him, and there he is, his broom bucking beneath him, trying to toss him off. Susan lets out an involuntary gasp, and Hannah grasps her hand. Susan doesn't move until Terry reminds her to "Please, breathe." She watches in horror as he dangles in the air, being whipped around like a ragdoll, and can feel her eyes well up with tears.

_Don't let anything happen to him_, she hopes with all her heart. She wants to close her eyes but can't. She grabs Terry's arm and holds on tight. _Please, no._

And then it stops. Just as it started, Harry Potter is able to climb onto his broom and even catch the Snitch for a Gryffindor win. Susan screams and screams herself hoarse and wishes she could storm the field and hug him, like Hermione Granger can. She resigns herself to screaming and screaming, but Hannah and the boys are too because it really was a spectacular catch.

When Terry walks Susan and Hannah back to their dorm, Susan thinks that Harry must be the most heroic boy she's ever met in her life. She must have looked dreamy, because Terry asks what's wrong.

"Are you feeling sick, Susan?" he wonders, grabbing her elbow to keep her upright.

"I'm wonderful," she replies, and goes to bed and dreams.

* * *

Susan plucks up some courage (at Hannah's insistence) and sends Harry a card while he is in the Hospital Wing. She signs it, Thinking of You, Susan Bones. She has never written any truer words, as she is thinking of Harry all the time. She hopes Madame Pomfrey is well qualified to keep him safe and make him better, and wonders if he's eating properly.

In the corridor she questions Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger as to how Harry is doing.

"He's not awake, but Madame Pomfrey says he will be soon," Ron says. Hermione looks worried.

"Will you tell him I said hello when he does wake up?" Susan requests on a whim.

"Of course," says Hermione, even though she will do nothing of the sort. She will forget, Susan knows, and so will Ron. But that's okay, she tells herself, because she would be surprised if Harry even knew who she was anyway. She has yet to work up the courage to say hello to him herself.

He is at the end of the year feast, and seems sour about the Slytherin decorations. But Susan is glad he's back, and he seems glad, too. She scans his body for any maladies that Madame Pomfrey might have missed, and, upon seeing none, smiles.

Dumbledore changes Harry's mood immensely, of course, when he begins awarding points to Gryffindor. Harry grins when he is given points, but not for himself - for Gryffindor. Harry never wants anything for himself, Susan thinks.

She cheers, the loudest of all the Hufflepuffs, when Gryffindor wins.


	2. Second Year

It's second year, and Susan Bones is nervous. 

She has resolved, after a summer with Hannah pestering her, to say hello to Harry on the train this year. To strike up a conversation. To make her presence known.

She might as well be walking through a brick wall, she tells Hannah.

"Well, that's not fair," says Hannah. "We're witches. We probably can walk through brick walls."

Susan thinks that this is not the point.

She shares a compartment with Hannah and Terry as they did last year (this time Terry has swapped his chocolate bars for Sugar Quills, but Hannah still has her lollipops). They are joined by Ernie and Justin, who have nothing to swap until the trolley gets there. They are shared with anyway.

"Go find him," Hannah whispers to her when the train begins to move. Terry overhears.

"Go find who?" Terry wonders. Hannah giggles.

"Nobody," says Susan quickly, casting Hannah a dark look.

"Yes," agrees Hannah unconvincingly. "Nobody."

Terry looks downtrodden, but says nothing. He's always been a discrete sort of person, and it makes Susan want to tell him about Harry.

But not yet.

She moves to leave just as Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner enter the compartment.

"Hello, all," Michael says pleasantly. "Have you heard the news yet?"

"Probably not," says Hannah, coldly, "as we've all been here. What is it?"

"Harry Potter's not on the train!" he says excitedly, sitting next to Terry and taking one of his Quills.

Susan feels a mixture of relief and fear. At least she doesn't have to go talk to him, but what if something's happened?

Michael continues, "I've just seen Hermione Granger looking for him and the Weasley boy, and she can't find them anywhere. She says they were with her when they got here, but never came through the barrier. Do you believe it?"

_He's been kidnapped_, Susan thinks, _kidnapped by Death Eaters and he's in trouble and he's going to die and -_

She is stopped by Terry's tiny voice of reason. "Perhaps something was wrong with the barrier. He's probably just sitting at King's Cross waiting for somebody to find him. After all, what can happen at King's Cross with all those wizards taking their kids to school? Someone would notice something, after all."

Terry has no idea what he's done to make Susan breathe easier, but Hannah does.

"Yes," says Hannah with a mild comforting note in her voice, "he'll probably be at the start of term feast, no trouble at all."

She glares at Michael Corner, who doesn't know what he did. Anthony Goldstein laughs.

* * *

Susan does not think flying cars are a responsible means of transportation, especially when being driven by someone who cannot avoid trees. She finds herself upset at Harry for being so reckless, until she remembers he's in Gryffindor and these things are to be expected. She then also remembers that Harry does not answer to her, as she has still never spoken to him.

Susan also hates Quidditch. It is a dangerous sport and should not be played when there are cursed Bludgers on the loose around the grounds. What kind of irresponsible team Captain allows a boy to be chased by a Bludger around the Quidditch pitch without doing anything? And what kind of teachers takes the bones from a person's body?

Susan hates Oliver Wood, and hates Lockhart all the more, and feels awful that she sighed over his good looks on the first day.

She is doing well in her classes, and has allowed Terry to teach her to play chess. He's quite good, being brilliant, and Susan is very bad. Terry is a modest winner though, and never makes her feel like she has done something wrong.

Susan wonders, sometimes, what it would be like to be in another House. She thinks Slytherin would make her cry, having to live in the same room as Pansy Parkinson. Ravenclaw might be fun, although the girls are snooty sometimes, and Susan isn't sure she's smart enough. Gryffindor, she doesn't think about. It is too good for her. She is no where near brave enough for Gryffindor.

The truth is, Susan isn't sure that if there hadn't been a House like Hufflepuff that she would have been Sorted at all. She isn't cunning like Parkinson or wildly intelligent like Terry or brave like Harry. Hufflepuff was all that was left. It was for the ordinary people who don't have anything to set them apart, and Susan is completely normal.

Unlike Hannah, who tries to cover up her normalacy by studying like a maniac, Susan is rather proud of it. After all, she likes Hufflepuff. She belongs here, with Hannah and Ernie and Justin, though sometimes she wishes Terry were with them.

Susan feels torn apart, because how is she supposed to belong here when Harry belongs in Gryffindor? Isn't she supposed to belong with him? She resolves to always love Harry, even if she can't belong with him. She knows he is too good for her.

* * *

Susan is scared. She has never been this scared before. She is scared for herself and for her friends, and she is scared for Harry who is being blamed for it all.

She comforts the first years as best she can, because it helps her to tell them it will all be all right. She never lets Hannah out of her sight, and neither does Ernie, after Justin goes and comes back as a statue. Terry walks them to class when he can, and she makes sure that Anthony watches out for him.

Despite what Ernie says, she knows that Harry would never do this.

Cedric Diggory and his friends watch over the younger Hufflepuffs, and Zacharias doesn't like it. "You may be my captain, but you are _not_ my mother," he informs Cedric, and stalks away on his own. Susan is sure he'll be the next to be attacked, since he is always by himself, but he is not. Hermione Granger is next.

Ernie stops talking about Harry.

"At least he apologized," says Hannah in Ernie's defense. "Most people didn't even bother."

Susan reminds herself that Hannah had defended Harry to Ernie, saying that he "seemed nice," and so doesn't press the issue. She also doesn't speak to Ernie for a while.

Susan has never been afraid like this before. She is afraid to turn the corner, she is afraid to go to class. She is afraid she'll never see her mother again. She writes home every day, and her mother always writes back. She doesn't talk about the attacks, but about normal things, and her mother does the same, thankfully. Mrs. Bones _does_ sign every letter with _Be careful, Susie!_ but Susan appreciates that she _is_ her mother, and has to say things like that.

"Susan, may I tell you something?" says Terry in the library one day.

"Of course, Terry." Susan stops reading for a moment and smiles at him. He is blushing.

"Well... you see... I just wanted you to know, in case something happens, that you're my best friend, you and Hannah of course, and that I was scared the first day on the train, but that you made it all better, and that if you hadn't said I could stay I probably wouldn't have any friends and... just... please don't die, okay?"

He says all this quite fast, and Susan is stricken. She thinks that Terry is afraid, possibly more afraid than she is, and that perhaps fear is collective.

"You're my best friend, too, Terry," she tells him, "and I am not going to die."

He has never looked so happy.

* * *

"Harry Potter has a hero complex," says Zacharias as they are walking down to the end of the year feast. Susan cannot help but gush her pride at Harry's rescue of the little Weasley girl. "He can't just let teachers find the girl, no no. Here he comes, to save the day! Thank _God_ for Potter."

Susan glares and opens her mouth to protest, but Ernie, to her surprise, is quicker.

"In case you haven't noticed," he says, "none of the teachers had any idea what was going on. If Harry hadn't found her, she would be dead."

Zacharias frowns but says nothing. Susan shoots Ernie a grateful he doesn't understand, and sits down at the Hufflepuff table.

Harry is with Ron Weasley at the Gryffindor table, and is congratulated upteen times before the feast has even started. He grins and allows the praise, but there is something that is making him sad. Something in the way he pauses right before he puts the fork in his mouth, something about the way he watches the doorway. Something that is fixed as soon as, halfway through the feast, Hermione Granger comes running up to them to give Harry and Ron hugs that could strangle a moose.

Of course, Harry was worried about his friend, and of course he would hug her back, but Susan has never wanted to be Hermione more in her entire life.

She tries not to stare at Harry, because he is beaming at Hermione and because she must say goodbye to all her friends. She watches as Justin and Calvin Summerby arm wrestle and knock a pitcher of pumpkin juice over. She notices, for the first time, that Hannah blushes every time Ernie says her name, and when Terry, Anthony, and Michael come over to say hi, that Terry looks relieved and happy and that he hugs her and Hannah like Hermione hugs Harry. Susan, who didn't lie about being his best friend, hugs back just as hard.

The feast is almost over when Susan realizes she isn't scared anymore.


	3. Third Year

It is third year, and Susan is excited. 

She has gotten her Hogsmeade permission form signed by her father, and she is thirteen now and she will be fourteen halfway through the year. She has also chosen her own classes this year - Ancient Runes with Terry and Divination with Hannah. She feels old and mature, and she and Hannah spend the last week of summer together, talking about growing up.

She has never thought about what she wants to be before. Hannah wants to work in the Ministry, in Muggle Relations (they are always looking for Muggleborns or Halfbloods with good people skills), but Susan doesn't know. She's rather good at Charms and Herbology, but she doesn't know what she can do with that. The only thing about her future that she knows is that she wants to be with Harry someday.

On the train, she asks Terry what he wants to do, and he blushes.

"Well... I've always wanted to own my own bookshop..." he says in a near whisper, and Susan is not surprised, considering that at the moment she asked the question, he'd had his nose stuck in _Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms_.

"I think you could, Terry," she says with a smile, and he beams at her.

"You could put it in Hogsmeade," suggests Ernie, "it's quite ridiculous that there isn't one. My copy of _Standard Book of Spells, Grade Two_, had the spine ripped off of it last year, and I had no way of getting a new one. I would think you'd get plenty of business in Hogsmeade with that sort of thing."

Ernie spends the rest of the train ride making poor Terry rather uncomfortable, discussing why this was the best time in history to start a business, until the Dementors come on.

The train is dark, and Susan is nervous. She grasps Terry's arm because he's closest. She would have taken an oath that she will never be happy again, it's so dark and cold... it's so cold...

All at once she begins to see the moment Harry was being bucked back and forth on his broomstick in first year. Her mind reels and she sees her mother crying and she can't remember why. She sees the day her labrador, Charles, died, and can't help but tear up and clutch Terry. He is clutching her just as hard.

She has never felt like this, and all she can think is that Harry Potter will never love her, she will never be good enough for him. The world is such a terrible place, and Harry needs someone to take care of him, and Susan cannot even take care of a lab puppy...

And just like that, it's over and done with. Susan is still shaken as she and Terry look at each other. Terry's eyes are brimming with tears, and Susan does not let go of him. She can't, because he is whispering something that sounds like, "Don't leave me, don't leave me, you're all I've got..."

As they walk into the Great Hall, Susan sees Draco Malfoy pretending to faint as the other Slytherins erupt in laughter. "What's that about?" she wonders aloud, and a sixth year girl named Elena Harris answers.

"Apparently Harry Potter fainted on the train," she says, disgusted, "and naturally that Slytherin boy's being a bloody prick about it. Like we all weren't scared off our arses!"

Elena Harris tends to swear when she is disgusted.

"What were those things?" asks Justin. Terry looks down at the floor, almost bitterly. He looks somewhat better and isn't crying anymore, but he's still pale and shaken, and Susan cannot let go of his arm.

"Dementors," replies Elena's friend, Charlene Branstone, with a shudder. "They make you relive your worst memories. My dad works at Azkaban, and everytime I got to visit him, I see images of my cat getting run over... scary little buggers, aren't they?"

The older girls walk away, and Justin looks enlightened.

Harry comes to the feast a bit late, after the Sorting is over. He spots Malfoy, and glowers. She wants to tell him he isn't a coward because he fainted, she wants to tell him she felt a bit like fainting too, but she can't. She lets Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley take care of him, because perhaps she was right when the Dementors were there. Maybe she can't take care of him.

Susan sulks for the rest of the feast, and no longer feels like growing up, if this is what it's like. She spends the night lying in bed awake, second guessing everything.

* * *

Susan likes Professor Lupin, but hates his lesson about bogarts. She isn't sure what she's afraid of when she walks to confront it. To her embarrassment and sorrow, it turns into Harry.

He is looking at her with a mixture of confusion and disgust, and she can't stand it. She feels like falling into a hole.

Before anything can happen, she quickly says, "Ridikulus!" and Harry turns into a hedgehog with unruly black spikes and glasses. It is the only mildly humorous thing she can think of at such short notice.

Professor Lupin looks halfway between amused and perplexed, but says nothing. Harry is one of his favorites, and he probably doesn't find him particularly terrifying. She asks him after class not to say anything to Harry about what happened, and she knows he won't.

Zacharias gives her hell about her Harry-bogart. He laughs the whole way to Potions and will not stop shouting things like, "Oooo, look out! I'm a speccy midget who can't comb his own hair! Ooo!"

Hannah tells him to shut up, and Justin offers to hex him, but Susan tells him he's not worth it.

Hannah is very confused. "I thought you loved him," she says. "Why are you afraid of him, too?"

Susan looks at Ernie, who has taken to smiling at Hannah every time she gets an answer right in class. They do their homework together, huddled over their parchment in the Common Room, and Hannah laughs fondly at all Ernie's pompous antics and blushes happily when he looks at her. They are happy in each other's company. Susan thinks they both know how they feel about each other without having to say anything, and Susan knows that Hannah will never understand.

* * *

The day before the first Hogsmeade visit, Terry asks her to go with him.

"Of course I will, doofus," she says with a playful hit on the arm. "You, me, and Hannah were going to go to Honeydukes, right? We might even get a little Christmas shopping done early, too -"

"Actually," says Terry. It is unlike him to interrupt her, but he looks so nervous that Susan doesn't comment. "I was thinking you and me could go together. Like... like... a date, I guess..."

Susan's eyes are wide and she stutters for a while before she can say anything. "I... Terry, I... I should have told you ages ago, but... I sort of like someone else."

Susan has never killed anything and doesn't know what a dying person would look like, but she thinks it might look a bit like Terry.

"I'm so sorry, Terry..." she says, and wonders if it will do any good.

After a moment, he smiles at her, and it lifts her heart though he still looks sad. "It's okay, Susan. You, me, and Hannah will go to Honeydukes after all."

He looks sincere, and Susan hugs him. She hopes she hasn't done something irrevocable.

"May I ask who it is?" he asks timidly. Susan thinks she owes him that much.

"Of course, silly," she says. "It's... Harry Potter."

Terry doesn't look surprised, and just nods. "I can understand that. And it... well, it sort of explains the bogart thing, doesn't it? Yes... I think I understand now."

Susan watches him as he walks away. He waves back to her with a smile that almost doesn't look forced, and she thinks that perhaps he does understand.

"Hannah," Susan says on a whim a few weeks later, "did you know that Terry asked me out?"

Hannah blushes and stares at her Exploding Snap cards (she is playing with Ernie, who is letting her win). "Well... I... er... I mean... yeah, he sorta told me he did."

"Did it surprise you?"

Hannah's blush deepens, and she tries to sound casual. "Not... not really. I kinda always knew he liked you, I mean... it's sort of obvious."

"I think you and Terry would make a sporting match," says Ernie, in his politician voice that means he doesn't know what he's talking about. "Always have. Fine chap, he is."

Susan feels nauseous, and considers letting Hagrid's maniac hippogriff kill her.

"If it makes you feel better," Hannah says as an afterthought, "he told me that after you turned him down, he started liking Mandy Brocklehurst. He says he's over you, and just wants to be friends. Well, you know, he said it more politely than that, but that was the gyst of it."

Susan feels supremely better.

* * *

The next night, after Hogsmeade, there is an attack on the Fat Lady, the portrait that guards Gryffindor Tower. Sirius Black is looking for Harry Potter. It's all over the school now, and when the students have to sleep in the Great Hall, Susan sleeps as near to Harry and his friends as she can without looking suspicious. She cannot hear what they say to each other, which is fine, she doesn't want to eavesdrop.

Hannah and Terry are with her, and Ernie and Justin. They stay up for a while, secretly whispering about the excitement.

"D'you reckon Harry'll be okay?" asks Justin nervously, because he rather likes Harry since he saved him from being Petrified.

"Of course he will," says Hannah, looking at Susan nervously. But Susan already knows that Harry will be okay. He's Harry Potter, and nothing can hurt him. He has survived You-Know-Who three times. Sirius Black can never hurt him.

Susan falls asleep before any of them, faster than she thinks she ever has, as she has never known before how comforting it is to sleep in the same room as someone invincible.

* * *

Harry Potter the Invincible is plummeting to the ground before Susan, and she cannot breathe. The presence of the Dementors isn't helping. _He's going to die_, Susan tells herself, and she is crying into Justin's shoulder, because he's there and Harry Potter is going to _die_.

"Susan!" cries Hannah. "Susan, he's okay, Dumbledore's saved him!"

The Dementors have been banished now, and there is Harry on the ground, splayed out almost gracefully. Hermione Granger and Ron are rushing the field, and Madame Hooch is already there checking on him. Dumbldore soon joins them. By the look on his face, he is livid.

Susan wishes more than anything that she were down there, and she hates Quidditch with all of her heart.

The worst part is that Cedric's caught the Snitch. Susan of course wants Hufflepuff to win, but not like this, and neither does Cedric.

"It wasn't fair!" he shouts at Madame Hooch as they take Harry to the Infirmary. "He would have gotten it if it weren't for those stupid things! Just call a rematch or something, please!"

Susan admires Cedric, even though he can't convince Madame Hooch to declare a rematch. The Hufflepuffs celebrate their victory in the Common Room, and she can't stand it. Susan goes upstairs to write Harry another get-well card he will probably never read.

* * *

Even though Susan worries constantly about Harry, she has never thought he couldn't handle himself. By the end of her third year, she cannot get out of her head that Harry Potter is only thirteen years old, and cannot be asked to deal with a madman out to kill him, nearly being attacked by a werewolf, and almost receiving the Dementor's Kiss.

Susan thinks Harry spends too much time in the Hospital Wing as it is, and that he should probably stop getting hurt now, thank you.

He is fine by the time they are on the train home. Susan strategically chooses the compartment next to his, and waits for something to happen so she can - do what? Be there for a boy she still hasn't spoken to? He has so many friends to help him. Why would he need Susan Bones, completely ordinary and dull Hufflepuff?

Susan has realized this year that she has nothing to set her apart from anybody. She is not particularly good, or even bad, at anything. She thinks that maybe part of growing up is learning your limitations, but all she can see are limitations. She cannot be with Harry Potter, who has always been too good for her, she cannot be better than Hermione Granger in any class, and she can't even beat Terry at chess. If this is growing up, she has nothing to look forward to.


	4. Fourth Year

It is fourth year, and Susan is relieved. 

When Dumbledore announces the Tri-Wizard Tournament, at first she is scared, because of course Harry will enter, and of course he will be chosen, and of course he will be hurt. But then Dumbledore, the beautiful, beautiful man, announces that only seventeen year olds will be able to enter, and Susan feels like kissing him.

"Bother," says Justin, who has always wanted to prove himself, but has never known how. "I'd be just as good a Champion as any of the seventeen-year-olds here."

"You would make a wonderful Champion," says Ernie diplomatically, "but it will be terribly exciting to watch, don't you think?"

Susan is happy again, because Terry has started casually seeing Mandy, though as he says, nothing is official, she caught Hannah and Ernie snogging in the common room and they are quite happy together, Cedric, a Hufflepuff, is chosen as Champion, and Harry will finally be safe.

But of course, Susan didn't forsee the effects of what Zacharias would call Harry's hero-complex. Susan remembers that trouble follows Harry like rats after a piper, and cannot breathe when his name comes out of the Goblet of Fire.

Zacharias is of course, furious, and Justin is rather angry too. Ernie is disgruntled, and Hannah says she understands.

"He didn't put his name in," Susan insists. "Why would he? He doesn't like being the center of attention..."

"Well... who else put it in, Susan?" Hannah asks sheepishly. "He does tend to get chosen for things, and he has a knack for being the center of everything..."

"I find it rather convenient that when the one person who has ever beaten him in Quidditch is chosen for something, he is also chosen," Zacharias says in his indifferent voice that means he's outraged.

Susan doesn't listen, and doesn't talk to Hannah or Zacharias anymore. She is furious at Hannah, who is wearing one of those ridiculous "Potter Stinks" badges that Malfoy made. Susan thought Hannah disliked Malfoy as much as Susan did, and is appalled that she would buy anything from him. She spends her time in the library with Terry, who is too passive to say anything about Harry Potter, Hogwarts Champion.

Susan watches the first task knowing that Harry will be okay, but she can't help but clutch Terry's arm anxiously anyway. She is smug, but accepts Hannah's apology, when Harry shows them all. Only Zacharias wears the badge anymore.

* * *

When the Yule Ball is announced, Susan knows that Harry won't think about inviting her, but waits hopefully for him to ask her anyway. She is under no delusion that he will - he has any girl in the school at his fingertips and she still isn't sure he knows her name. 

Still, she cannot help picturing herself smiling coyly as he stutters out an invitation (because he would stutter, she knows, and the thought makes her smile), or seeing his jaw drop as she meets him in her dress, or laughing with him as they dance.

Terry asks her to go with him, but it is very casual, and Susan doesn't mind saying no. Terry actually smiles in relief. "I assumed you'd wait for Harry, but I thought I would extend the invitation. I don't mean to be rude, but I'm rather glad you said no. I think Mandy would be rather upset with me if I took another girl."

Susan smiles gratefully, and waits.

It's Zacharias who unknowingly gives her the bad news. She's sitting in the common room doing an essay for History of Magic when Zacharias sits next to her as if he wants her attention.

When she doesn't give it to him (he is still wearing that _stupid_ badge), he finally says stoically, "Susan. Go to the Ball with me."

Susan is disgusted. "No," she says instantly. "You're a prat."

Zacharias thinks for a moment, and then shrugs as though he must agree, and Susan rolls her eyes.

"Besides," says Hannah from behind her own essay, "Wayne told me you'd be asking Parvati Patil."

"Well, of course she's said no," says Zacharias. "Naturally bloody Potter's already asked her."

Susan has prepared herself for this, but still does not expect the pain in her heart and the cramping in her throat. Hannah shoots Susan a worried look, which Susan ignores.

"Harry Potter's going with Parvati Patil?" she says carefully.

"Yes," Zacharias hisses. "He just ruins everything, doesn't he? Anyway, I've learned my lesson about trying to Inter-House date, and you're the last Hufflepuff girl in our year who doesn't have a date, so I thought I'd ask you."

Susan is outraged and heartbroken and Zacharias has no idea what he's gotten into.

"No, I will _not_ go with you, Zacharias Smith, and I wouldn't go with you if you were the last _idiot_ on earth, so you can just go ask a first year because _they_ are the only girls you could _possibly_ get!"

Susan almost feels guilty when Zacharias stalks away, scowl on his face.

Hannah tries to comfort her, but Susan ignores it. Hannah has Ernie, and no idea what she's talking about. For days, Hannah talks about remedies for heartache, Justin tries to cheer her up not knowing why, and Ernie discusses the benefits of going stag. Susan hates all of them officially now.

"You know, he doesn't even like Parvati," says Terry two nights before the Ball. "He asked Cho Chang originally, but Cedric had already asked her."

Terry doesn't know that what he's saying makes her stronger. Susan feels mutinous, and has nothing to mutiny against. If Harry can take someone he doesn't really like, why can't she? She might still have fun, and there is still time.

She searches out Zacharias, who is practicing on the Quidditch pitch with Cadwallader and Summerby. They catcall as Zacharias swoops down to her with a smug half smile. He leans against his broomstick as she approaches.

"What brings you out here on this fine evening?" Zacharias asks and Susan could just smack that smug look off his face.

She takes a breath and reminds herself that he's her only choice. "I was just wondering if you'd... found a... you know... a..."

"Set of dress robes?" says Zacharias with a smirk. "Yes, I have. Be ready at seven."

Susan thinks that perhaps he's just stopped her from having to ask him, and feels something like appreciation for him as he flies away. Summerby and Cadwallader resume their calls. Susan yells over her shoulder, "By the way, the _girl's_ the one who wears the dress, in case you're confused."

She can feel Zacharias glaring at her back as Summerby and Cadwallader laugh.

* * *

Aunt Amelia sends her her old dress, a beautiful scarlet gown that flows from her waist to the floor and shows off what Aunt Amelia calls her "swan neck." She puts it on and leaves her auburn hair down, instead of its usual plait, and feels beautiful. She has never felt beautiful before. 

Hannah wears black and smiles modestly and for once Ernie can only stammer as she takes his arm. Zacharias arrives ten minutes after seven in dress robes, looking flushed. Susan is cross with him until he hands her a daffodil.

"I was in the greenhouses," he says defensively. "Took me twenty minutes to convince Sprout to let me pick this."

Susan smiles in spite of herself and can't think of what to say. "It... uh... it doesn't match."

Zacharias gives her a half smile and with a flick of his wand, it is a red rose. "Well, if you must be particular," he says, and Susan is sure he knows she meant thank you.

They walk to the Ball with Hannah, Ernie, and Justin, who meets a younger Gryffindor girl as his date. Terry and Mandy wave from their table, and Susan waves back. On Zacharias's arm, Susan feels a bit guilty as Harry and Parvati walk in together. They dance, as Susan had hoped to, and Susan tries not to stare.

Zacharias asks her to dance and is relatively well coordinated. He gets her punch and pulls out her chair and asks her about herself. Susan might accidentally be having a good time. She only thinks about Harry when she sees Parvati dancing with a boy from Durmstrang.

Susan would not leave Harry even if he was a lousy date and stared at Cho Chang the whole night. But then, Susan is a Hufflepuff and Parvati is not - she is not supposed to be loyal.

The night is over. Zacharias walks Susan back to the dorm. Ernie and Hannah go the long way back, and Justin takes his date to Gryffindor Tower. Terry and Mandy say goodnight at the stairs. Zacharias and Susan are alone.

"I'm supposed to tell you you look beautiful," says Zacharias casually.

Susan raises an eyebrow. "You're supposed to? Says who?"

She think she sees Zacharias blush, and he scowls. "Terry, actually," he confesses. "He sort of demanded that I be a good date, and gave me a list of things I should do. He, er... didn't want you to know."

Susan can see why. She feels a bit cheated, but manages a smile. "Well, I should have known you couldn't be a gentleman on your own." Zacharias laughs a little bit, and Susan adds as an afterthought, "And... you don't have to tell me I look beautiful."

Zacharias stops walking and looks at her. She stops too, and stares back, directly in his eye. She realizes that she is unused to looking people in the eye, and it makes her uncomfortable, but she doesn't look away. She feels defiant. Zacharias always makes her feel that way.

"I wasn't saying it because Terry told me to," he informs her. "You do look beautiful."

Susan feels herself blushing. He comes closer, she backs up, slowly. She reaches a wall, and he is close to her. He grabs her waist in one hand and touches her face gently with the other. He is looking at her, and won't let her look away, and she feels her skin tingle. She feels powerful, even though she is the one against the wall.

He kisses her, and she lets him. He was a gentleman, after all, even if it was prompted. He is gentle. It surprises her. His kiss makes her whole body shiver with... with what? With strength. Zacharias has always made her feel strong.

And then, unbidden, a face pops into her closed eyes. A face with glasses, unkempt hair, and green eyes that have seen too much.

Susan turns her head away from him, her eyes still closed. He lurches a bit, surprised.

"What is it?" he wonders, brow furrowed in confusion.

"I... I can't, Zacharias," she tells him. "I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Can't what?" he demands. She should have known he wouldn't let it go.

"Can't kiss you," she says.

"Why? I thought you were doing pretty well."

Susan tries not to smile and cry at the same time. "I... just can't... I... I love someone else, Zacharias, and this... feels wrong."

Zacharias stares for a moment, and a grim smile is set on his face. "It's Potter, isn't it?"

Susan blinks in surprise. "What?"

"I've seen the way you stare at him, in class, at meals, whenever he's near you. And you talk about him a lot whenever he achieves something. And, well... Potter tends to ruin things for me, even when he doesn't know he's doing it." He smiles grimmly, but it is a smile. She thinks she didn't break his heart like she might have broken Terry's. She remembers that he only asked her because she was his only choice.

"I'm sorry, Zacharias," she says, and she means it too, though she never thought she'd be able to apologize to him.

He shrugs and smirks. "S'all right. Just... lemme know if you're ever over him. Deal?"

She smiles, and says, "I will," and knows Zacharias doesn't understand either. She wonders how he got into Hufflepuff when he doesn't know what it means to give yourself away completely.

He walks Susan to the dorm and kisses her cheek goodnight before she goes up the stairs. Hannah isn't there yet, and Susan is a mixture between relieved and saddened. This is the sort of thing that should be told to a best friend. A first kiss. Shouldn't it?

Susan flops onto her bed without even taking off her shoes. Over and over, she thinks, _It should have been with Harry..._

She spends the night apologizing in her sleep.

* * *

The second task, Susan holds her breath, and awaits the girl that Harry will save. She thinks it will be Cho, but then Cedric's girl is Cho. It must be Hermione, but Krum's is Hermione. She wonders who else there is, and is relieved to see him struggling with Ron. They bring a little blonde girl with them, but it is Fleur's sister, and she is sure Harry doesn't even know her name. 

He is tied with Cedric in the lead, and it is the third task that makes Susan fidget in class and in the library and at meals. She is worried and proud and a whole mixture of strong emotions that one shouldn't feel for someone they've never spoken to.

She sits in the stands and cheers as Harry runs into the maze. She waits. She isn't good at waiting.

"Who d'you think'll win?" asks Justin, chewing on the leg of a Chocolate Frog.

"Harry," says Susan immediately, and blushes. "... or Cedric, of course. Either way, Hogwarts will win."

The Hufflepuffs spend their time debating between Cedric and Harry, and Susan's leg jiggles impatiently as they wait for the Champions to return.

Red sparks shoot into the sky, and Susan feels like she's having a heart attack, until Fleur is retrieved. Terry, who came to visit her when they were spotted, tells her not to worry, but from his voice, she knows he doesn't think it will work.

It is a long time before Harry returns, and to Susan's surprise, he and Cedric arrive at the same time, clutching each other and the Goblet. Susan begins to cheer before she sees that Harry is sobbing.

"What's happening?" she whispers, clutching Hannah's arm. "Hannah, what is it?"

"It's... it's Cedric," Hannah says slowly. "Something's happened to Cedric."

Susan instantly feels guilty, because she is relieved that it's not Harry. But Cedric..._ oh, God, Cedric_... Susan turns to Cho to see her crying but unable to look away.

"He's dead," Susan barely hears Zacharias say. "Cedric's been killed."

* * *

At the end of term feast, Dumbledore announces the return of You-Know-Who, and that he was the one who killed Cedric. Susan remembers when Harry was sobbing over Cedric's body, and watches him as Dumbledore makes the announcement, and his stony face and strong eyes make Susan trust him more than she's ever trusted anybody. 

On the train ride home, the Hufflepuff fourth years sit alone in a compartment. Ernie, Justin, Hannah, and Susan, but also Zacharias, Megan, and Sally-Anne. They are all nervous and terrified, and only Zacharias hides it well.

"We must decide what we're to do," announces Ernie.

"Nothing," replies Zacharias. "It's all a stupid story. There's no way Harry could have survived You-Know-Who when Cedric didn't. I don't believe a word of it."

Susan grits her teeth, but says nothing. She can think of nothing to say.

It is Justin who speaks next, slow and quiet, but powerful. "We've doubted Harry before," he says, "and every time it turned out he was right. Me... I believe him. He needs us to believe him."

"I believe him, too," says Susan, and she meets Zacharias's stare without wavering. "I always have."

The others agree, and finally Zacharias does too, though he isn't helpful when it comes to making plans. They are to tell their parents what happened, to owl each other every day, in a chain; Susan to Hannah, Hannah to Ernie, Ernie to Justin, and so on. They will protect each other from anything they can, and like all Hufflepuffs, they are devoted to each other. They have to be.

By the end of her fourth year, Susan Bones must be all grown up. Or else, she must try to fake it.

* * *

**A/N:** Hey, I hope you guys are liking the story! If you do, I'd like to suggest a read of one of my other stories, _Send Me All Your Vampires_, which is just a one-shot. I'm rather proud of it, but it hasn't gotten any reviews yet! Please read it if you have the time. Thanks a bunch, hope you liked this chapter! More soon, I promise. 


	5. Fifth Year

It is fifth year and Susan is grim. 

She clutches Sally-Anne's nervous letters in her fist as she enters the compartment - Sally-Anne and Susan had never really previously spoke, but Susan has found her letters oddly comforting over the summer. She has never pegged Sally-Anne Perkins as the frightened type, but each of her letters became increasingly more afraid as the summer went on.

_My mother gets the Daily Prophet, and listens to everything it says. She isn't sure she believes all this hype, Susan, but she didn't see Cedric's body. She doesn't worry when she goes out of the house, and I know she isn't prepared... it makes me think something's going to happen to her, Susan, and I just don't know what to do..._

On the train, Sally-Anne doesn't look at her as they pass in the corridor. That's fine with Susan. She can understand someone being embarrassed at all the nervous, frightened writings they send a nearly perfect stranger. Still, Susan cannot help but feel a bit stung as Sally-Anne gives her older, Ravenclaw boyfriend a kiss - Susan doesn't think she would have told him all those things, and still he is the one she is going to...

But still, Susan and Sally-Anne were never friends. Letters can't change that, she supposes...

Terry looks relieved when she gets to the compartment - Hannah and Ernie are off in the prefects compartment, and so is Anthony Goldstein, and Michael Corner is apparently off with his girlfriend - Ron Weasley's little sister. Terry is alone.

He politely invites Susan to play chess with him, and Susan accepts. She's still awful at it, but she never minds playing with Terry.

"Susan," Terry says after a long and pleasant silence. He is unsure of himself. Terry is never sure what lines he is crossing. "Do you really believe all those things that Harry Potter's said?"

"Yes," replies Susan calmly, moving her knight to take his bishop, "I do. Don't you?"

"I..." He stares at her a moment, but she won't look at him. "I mean.. the Prophet's always saying that there's no merit to the story, and... I don't mean to upset you, but... it does seem slightly preposterous..."

"Harry wouldn't lie about something like that," says Susan. Terry looks rather unconvinced.

"I don't know... Michael says he doesn't believe a word of it, even though Ginny insists Harry wouldn't lie, and-"

"I've never been able to figure out why you put so much stock into what Michael Corner thinks, Terry," Susan says, unable to keep a rather scolding tone out of her voice. Terry looks shamefaced.

"It's just... you trust Harry with your life and you've never even spoken to him... It doesn't seem quite... logical..."

Hannah, Ernie, and Justin enter the compartment at that moment, and Susan doesn't feel like playing chess anymore.

* * *

Susan slowly walks the steps up to her dormitory, and when she closes the door behind her, immediately proceeds to hit her head repeatedly against it. She cannot believe that her first conversation with Harry Potter is about his Patronus. 

Hannah tells her that it's a good start, at least now he knows her name, but Susan can't help but think that Harry only knows her as Amelia Bones's neice...

And she saw the way he stared at Cho Chang, who was Cedric's before, but isn't now, and from the way she stared back, Susan thinks Harry could have her if he wanted...

She hopes that Harry doesn't see that, and won't do anything about it, and that Harry will talk to her more now that he knows her name.

* * *

Susan lives for Dumbledore's Army meetings. The Room of Requirement is the only place she can get Harry to notice her. She has never hated Hogwarts before, but now that Umbridge is here, she cannot see herself here anymore. This is not where she belongs. 

She sees the words on Harry's hand when he helps her with her Stunning Spell, and hates Dolores Umbridge and needs the DA even more.

She has never been able to defend herself before. She feels powerful, like she did when Zacharias kissed her. Zacharias doesn't talk to her anymore. She isn't sure he minds, either, the way he always questions Harry.

She sees him help Cho Chang every lesson and it makes her stomach turn. After the holidays, she hears they are together from Luna Lovegood, who is able somehow to say it as though it's not the worst thing in history. Still, she can't decide whether she's more upset or happy about it. After all, he seems quite happy, and it is impossible for her to begrudge him that. She is too dedicated to his smile.

After the breakout from Azkaban, Ernie, Hannah, and Justin look at her strangely a lot, as if she's going to fall off the table and break. Many people question her about her uncle, aunt, and cousins who were killed, and she is glad she can't really give them any information. Her father doesn't like to talk about his brother, and Susan never met them. Aunt Amelia sometimes mentions Uncle Edgar, but she is soon silenced by Susan's mother, who knows how much it tortures Susan's father.

Susan finds she doesn't much like to talk about dead relatives and the people who killed them. She tells Harry she knows what it's like to be him, but doesn't think he realizes how much she means it.

Susan helps to distrubute copies of Harry's article in The Quibbler disguised as pamphlets for the Gobstone Club. Terry helps her. As they hand out the pamphlets, Terry turns to her and grins. "You know," he says, "I don't think Harry even knows how much support he has."

The thought makes Susan smile and hurt at the same time.

* * *

They are practicing Patronuses the day everything ends. Susan watches her hummingbird flit around the room. Ernie's is a small elephant who is playing with Hannah's porcupine. Terry (who was one of the first to get his Patronus - a squirrel) is helping Justin with his. It forms in a moment into a dog of some sort - Terry proudly identifies it as a dingo. 

Michael wonders as his fox Patronus dances around his feet, how a squirrel is supposed to protect someone. Terry looks sheepish. Susan makes her hummingbird peck at the fox's eyes.

Then it is all ruined by that stupid Ravenclaw girl, Cho's friend, who tells Umbridge what they're doing. They don't meet anymore.

Susan sees Harry and Cho argue in the corridor, and can't help but beam all the way to her next class.

* * *

Susan talks to Professor Sprout about her career. There isn't much to say. Susan still has no idea what she is to do for the rest of her life. Sprout suggests something with Herbology because "I've seen the way you worked with the Mandrake's three years ago, and they are hard to deal with." Susan thanks her, and leaves the meeting more worried about the future than when she entered. 

Hannah is stressed because of O.W.L.'s, Ernie is obnoxious because of them, and they make Justin faint. Terry, who has never seemed flustered about anything academic, helps Susan study in the library. She doesn't know what she's going to do.

After the examinations, Susan and her friends lay outside under the trees, cloaks off, hair down, wands relaxed by their sides. Justin and Anthony Goldstein begin to play catch lazily with acorns laying under the tree. Hannah and Ernie whisper to each other. Terry reads. Susan stares at the clouds and wonders what she's going to do with her life.

* * *

They learn about the battle at the Ministry the day after it happens. Susan feels awful. She wasn't there. She could have helped. She thinks of what could have happened to Harry and it makes her sick. 

The Ministry admits what Harry's been saying all along is true. The wizarding world is in panic. Susan's mother writes her twice a day. Susan spends the rest of her free time at Hogwarts in the dormitory, playing with her Patronus. She wants so badly to feel safe.

On the train going home, Susan chooses the compartment right next to Harry's, just in case. When Malfoy amushes Harry, Susan is sure he is a Death Eater, and fights like he is one. When he turns into some sort of slug like creature, Susan cannot say it's much big loss.

The Hufflepuffs agree to keep writing each other. Hannah hugs her and looks tearful. "You'll come visit sometime, won't you?" she asks, and Susan says of course, even though she knows her mother won't let her out of her sight all summer.

Terry tells her to "Please, stay safe." She tells him the same thing, and hugs him harder than she meant to. He's grown so much taller than her. She remembers he used to be shorter, and skinnier. His glasses still slip down his nose and his hair is still just a little too short for him, but he's grown up. They all have, really.

"Would you mind writing me?" asks Terry shyly, even though Susan's always written him. She smiles.

"Everyday," she says. He is her best friend. She will never abandon him. She is too loyal for that.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm so sorry for the lack of update. My computer's been down for weeks. Hopefully I'll be finished by the time the seventh book comes out. 

I just want to let everyone know that this is not going to be an AU story until the seventh chapter, and that's only because I don't know what's happening in the seventh book. So sixth year will go the same way it did in the book, just from a different point of view. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it.


	6. Sixth Year

It is sixth year, and Susan is mourning. 

Aunt Amelia is dead. Her father cries now. She has never seen a grown man cry, and it is disturbing and uncomfortable - like watching an accident she cannot prevent. She can tell when he's going to cry - his eyes get glossy and he stares at the air in front of him. After a while, Susan leaves the room when her father starts to stare.

It is a relief to get back on the train. Her Muggle mother, who doesn't understand, gives her a rape whistle as a parting gift - "just in case." The whistle makes her laugh, which she hasn't done for months, because she sincerely doubts that if she meets a Death Eater, rape will be the first thing on his or her mind.

The whistle also reminds her of how scared her mother must be, not understanding, not knowing. Susan promises to wear the whistle.

On the train, Hannah hugs her, and Susan hugs back. Hannah has heard, of course, about Aunt Amelia's death, and looks at her like she will break. Justin offers nervous words of comfort, and Ernie practically goes on a crusade trying to get her to "talk about her _feelings_."

The truth is, Susan doesn't know what her feelings are anymore, and couldn't talk about them even if she'd wanted to.

Terry is not in the compartment with them, and after a while, Susan leaves to find him. Anything is better than Hannah's worried looks and Ernie's incessant, though kind-hearting, prattling.

She finds him in a compartment with Mandy Brocklehurst, and they are arguing. Susan waits outside the door, and can't help but listen to what's being said. _It's funny_, she thinks, _I could have sworn they broke up ages ago_.

"-two years, Terry. Two years I've been with you," Mandy was saying, and tears were falling down her pretty, Ravenclaw face. It wasn't fair, Susan thought, to be pretty and smart, when Susan wasn't anything at all. "You didn't write me but twice all summer. I was worried _sick_, d'you realize? You always chose your friends over me, and you know it. Always. This is even the first time we've sat on the train together, and it's only because I'm breaking it off-"

Terry, who had been staring at the floor of the compartment shamefaced, now looks up in alarm. "I'm sorry," he says, always the gentleman, "but I don't believe I heard that last part. Did you say you were-"

"Breaking it off, Terry," says Mandy forcefully, impatiently, _angrily_. Susan's chest swells. _No one_ may talk to Terry that way. "In times like this, I need someone who's going to take care of me. All you ever think about is Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones, and I don't know anyone who would stay with you if that happened for two years."

"I... I'm sorry, Mandy," says Terry, trying to plead, but Mandy stalks off without another word. She doesn't see Susan at the door, and Susan resists the urge to hex her, because Terry is there, and Terry would say it wasn't prudent.

Slowly, Susan enters the compartment. Terry is staring again, at the floor, like Susan's father, but he's not going to cry, Susan thinks. She realizes she's never seen Terry cry, which is funny. She'd always assumed he was the type of boy who would cry.

"Hello, Terry," she says, giving him a warm smile as he looks up in surprise.

"Hello, Susan," he replies, sounding oddly pleasant. "Did you... did you hear all that, then?"

"Yes... I'm sorry, Terry, I couldn't help but overhear." She would have said she was sorry that Mandy ditched him, but she wasn't. Mandy obviously wasn't good enough for Terry.

"It's all right, it was bound to happen sometime," Terry says. He sounds... _normal_, which of course isn't normal at all at a time like this. "I heard about your auntie. I'm very sorry, Susan."

He sounds like he means it, like he understands.

"Thanks, Terry," Susan says, "but aren't you upset? We don't have to talk about me right now."

Terry, to Susan's great surprise, laughs. And not a denial laugh, either, a real and true laugh, and now he is smiling like nothing at all happened.

"I think I would be upset, except that there are more important things than a girlfriend right now," he says. "And, anyway, she was right. I was an awful boyfriend. I really did choose you and Hannah over her. All the time."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Susan says defensively. "You're supposed to-"

"You wouldn't choose me over Harry, would you?" asks Terry, and Susan's mouth closes in an instant. She thinks of Harry's smile, and his hair, and his eyes, the way he's grown, and looks like he's actually eaten sometime in his life now. She thinks of the way she trusts him, completely and wholly, the way she would follow him anywhere. And she thinks of Terry, and doesn't know anything at all.

"Well, that's not fair," Susan says, "he's not my boyfriend."

"Yes, I know," says Terry, "but... you still love him anyway."

Susan nods, and Terry moves toward her and in one motion hugs her tight. "I'm glad you're safe, Susan."

She hugs back, and says into his shoulder, "I'm glad you're safe, too"

* * *

For years, Susan has lived through Harry's private triumphs and losses, and in sixth year, this continues. She smiles when Ernie tells her of Harry's newfound Potion's talent, and is angered by Snape's attempt to jinx him. She is thrilled when he is made Quidditch Captain and is upset for him when Hermione and Ron have some sort of lover's spat after the Quidditch game and stop talking.

"Everyone knows they're going to be together anyway," Susan overhears Sally-Anne Perks say to Megan Jones one evening as if the whole Ron-Hermione thing was yesterday's news. "They should just go shag or something and get it over with."

The thought makes Susan uncomfortable. She doesn't like thinking about anyone their age shagging, and if Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are supposed to do it, that means Harry probably is, too. And what if he already has? He could have any girl in the world right now, and what's stopping him, anyway?

Although, knowing Hermione, she'd probably have a fit if he did, but still.

And anyway, was Susan supposed to think of Harry that way, since she loved him? She'd daydreamed about kissing him for what seems like her whole life, but those sort of thoughts never crossed her mind. They began to, though, now that stupid Sally-Anne brought it up. Every time she saw him, she thought of his calloused hands on her hips, of her fingers in his hair, of other much more unspeakable things, and she would go hot and red and ask to be excused from class for a moment to catch her breath.

She couldn't even _breathe_ around him. He made her weak.

And it was awful because of course Zacharias would notice and of course he would make a big deal of it. Zacharias knows exactly what she's blushing about when she looks at Harry, because he always did seem to know exactly what she was thinking.

"I think it might be blasphemy for someone like you to think of our lovely, worshipped hero like that," Zacharias whispers in her ear one day. He is treating the whole thing like it's their little secret, like he holds something over her head. "Tell me, when you do, does he have a hero-sized - "

"Sod off, Smith!" Susan shouts at him, and runs up to her dorm room, just to escape him.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," says Hannah, who is the only one Susan is comfortable sharing with. "Zacharias has always been terribly jealous of Harry, and I'm sure he just wishes you were thinking of him that way instead."

"Oh, hell," Susan mutters.

"Oh, don't worry," says Hannah, "it's not that he fancies you, or anything. I think he just doesn't want Harry Potter to have one more thing, is all."

Hannah is a much better judge of character than Susan thought. Soon she is gone, and her mother is dead, and so many people are gone... Susan doesn't know what to do without Hannah.

* * *

Around Christmas, Susan hears that Harry has asked Luna Lovegood to go to Professor Slughorn's Christmas party with him, and is confused and hurt by the match. Really, who would have guessed.that Harry had a crush on Loony Lovegood?

"I wouldn't be too worried about it," Terry says as he's getting on the train to go home, "Luna says they only went as friends. Happy Christmas, Susan!"

"Happy Christmas," Susan says distractedly, and leaves to go back to the dorm just to smile to herself.

However, months later, when she sees Harry and Ginny Weasley kissing on the grounds, she knows he isn't kissing her "as friends."

Of course Harry _would_ chose Ginny, who is pretty and fiery and brilliant and has always been there for him. Susan can never measure up to that.

* * *

The night of the Battle of Hogwarts, Susan is asleep, and when she wakes up she will never forgive herself.

"Harry could have died!" she rages at Ernie, who looks bewildered and ashamed.

"We all could have died, in case you're forgetting," retorts Zacharias, "and someone did die, someone more important than stupid Potter will ever be."

"You're such a prat, Zacharias!" yells Susan, tears in her eyes.

"And you're a moron, Bones!" he shouts at her, she can't believe he is shouting at her at a time like this. "We haven't got a headmaster, we probably haven't got a school, and we haven't got a _prayer_, and your worried about the Boy who Can't Even Save an Old Man!"

"In my opinion, we do have a prayer, Zacharias," Ernie interjects, puffed up importantly. "Harry is our prayer, and we must stand by him, or..." he pauses rather dramatically, "it shall be our downfall."

"Well if my choice is side with Potter or face my downfall, I choose downfall anyday," Zacharias announces. "That idiot won't get us out of anything, and I'm not staying to watch him fuck it up."

He leaves before Dumbledore's funeral, and Susan doesn't miss him, but she can't help but worry about him anyway. After all, he was the boy who made her feel strong.

* * *

On the train, Susan starts a letter to Hannah, reading it after she's done to Ernie, Justin, Terry, and Anthony.

_Dear Hannah,  
You've probably heard the news, that Dumbledore is dead. Well, if you haven't, there it is. He's dead. But we're not giving up. We've got to do something. I'm sure you agree, after what happened to your mother. Stay where you are until you recieve further word from either me or Ernie. We'll come for you soon. Be ready and be safe.  
Love Always,  
Susan_

They will fight back. They have to. Susan won't let Harry be alone.


	7. Seventh Year

**A/N:** You might hate me for this chapter, but... it had to be done. Sorry.  
It's not as bad as you think. Enjoy! and thanks for all of your reviews, they were so kind and helpful!  
Be on the lookout for a new story by me about the Marauders. It probably won't be out until after the 7th book (everybody celebrate!) but it should be good.  
Thanks again! You're all wonderful!  
And now for the final chapter...

* * *

It isn't seventh year, and probably never will be. Susan has come to terms with that.

She spends the first week of her summer with her family. Her father has stopped crying, and her mother hugs her every morning. They go to the zoo together, and the park when it is sunny. They play her mother's old board games in the sunroom and Susan makes lemonade without a wand, even though she is of age now. She feels like being classic, if only for a week.

In early June, she gets a letter from Terry, who tells her it is time. Instantly, she writes to none other than Harry Potter. As she lets Xavier go, she worries after him. The sun is not even up yet.

Two days later, his beautiful snowy owl brings a letter to her. She is surprised by his promptness. All the letter says is, "Come _to the place where the One He Feared fell, on the night when the moon rises complete_."

She is not sure what to make of the note, and, having never pinned Harry as being overly cryptic, is sure someone else wrote it. The handwriting is too girly anyway.

She spreads the word to all the Hufflepuffs, Terry, and Anthony Goldstein, repeating the letter word for word. She's sure they'll know what it means. She even sends one to Zacharias, with a sidenote to only come if he wants to help.

She asks her parents to come with her, but her father won't. "It's too dangerous. I don't even want you going, Susie."

Her mother is crying, and Susan opens her mouth to argue, but her father stops her. "But... I understand you're of age now. I can do nothing to stop you, can I?"

She kisses them good-bye, and Apparates with her trunk to Hogsmeade, saying only that she promises to be safe.

* * *

Being a part of the Order of the Phoenix was hard work, and Susan is not even really a member. She must train hard, casting spells she has never heard of next to people she's never met. Some people, she knows, come to the Headquarters - which is a completely secret location; Susan doesn't even know where she is - just for protection. They were asked by a very weary looking Professor Lupin if that's why they had come. 

"No," Susan says, trying to sound defiant. "We're here to fight."

The other Hufflepuffs look to her, and so do Anthony and Terry. She doesn't understand why they do everything she says, until Terry explains that they figure she's got the most cause for revenge, as she's lost most of her family. Susan thinks of Hannah, who is crying out uncharateristically for revenge for her mother's death, but then realizes how fragile Hannah is looking these days. At lunch, she reminds Hannah to eat.

The Headquarters is a nice, big house, although messy and kind of creepy, with lots of dead House-Elves on the Walls. Those who are there for protection are asked to help clean up the place, and Terry suggests a spell that will remove all the nasty pictures, but it will still take months to take them all down.

People come in every day, but there always seems to be enough room. Susan shares a tiny room with Hannah, Sally-Anne, and Megan, and tries to convince herself it is not much different from being at school.

She hasn't seen Harry Potter anywhere.

She asks after him once from Ginny Weasley, who looks sour. "Him? He's upstairs in Sirius's old room, being a recluse because he thinks it's _noble_." Ginny rolls her eyes. "He doesn't understand that the noble thing would be to let people see him sometimes. Get the morale up, you know?"

At that moment, Ginny's older twin brothers whisk her away to their room to try out some experiment or another. They tell Susan later that it's not a good idea to get Ginny started about Harry.

"Ever since they broke up, it's rather a sore subject," says one of them (Susan can't tell if it's Fred or George). "She's been testy to everyone lately."

"While we appreciate Harry keeping our sister safe," adds the other, "you'd think he might have thought that she'd take it out on us!"

Susan feels guilty for being happy that Ginny and Harry aren't together, especially at a time like this. She shouldn't be worried about making Harry Potter fall in love with her, not now, not when a war's going on, but she can't help it. After all... he's why she's here.

One night, Susan wakes up to Hannah's groans in her sleep. Hannah's been having nightmares, which only Ernie can assuage, so Susan gets up to get him. As she climbs the stairs (she swears there were less of them when they first arrived) she looks at the door to Harry's room and wonders what he's doing.

She wakes up Ernie and sends him down to Hannah, but doesn't go back down herself. Instead, she climbs the rest of the stairs.

Hesitantly, realizing how late it is, she knocks on the door. A gruff voice makes an uncommitable noise, and Susan says softly, "It's, um... Susan. Susan Bones. I just wanted to - "

She hears the door unlatch and it opens slowly. Harry is wearing his glasses, and looks tired and wartorn, which she supposes he is. She instantly feels horrible for waking him.

"I'm sorry... This is a bad time. I'll just... I'll just go - "

"It's okay," says Harry, "I wasn't asleep. Please... come in."

There was something in his voice that Susan didn't quite recognize, and as she stepped inside the darkened room, she realized he was pleading.

He must be so lonely in this horrible room with only one lamp on. He must be so scared...

"I heard about your aunt," he says, and seemed to know how old that news was. "Last year, I mean. I... I never got to say how sorry I was."

"Thank you," Susan says. Her heart flutters as she looks about the room. Parchement and old books and bits of food are strewn about the place. It does not seem fit for human habitation, and he looks as though he hasn't shaved for a while. _Oh, Harry_...

"I heard about your Godfather," Susan says, trying to make conversation, and also trying to make herself seem... what? Connected to him? "I'm sorry, too."

Harry gave a stark, mirthless laugh. "Yes. Everyone's very sorry, now that he's dead. No one was sorry before, when he was alive, when we could have..."

He looks ashamed of himself, and Susan wants to tell him it's okay to still be sad. That she thinks about Aunt Amelia everyday. "It's what keeps me fighting, you know," she says. The thought is disconnected from the rest of the conversation, but Harry doesn't seem to care. He looks so weary, it's scary...

"It's just not fair!" he shouts to her surprise. "Things are not supposed to happen this way! I'm supposed to be able to do something, but all I can do is sit up here and read about Horcruxes and Hogwarts founders and I'm so _angry_ all the time!"

Susan can't believe he's telling her all this, after all these years she'd hoped and prayed he would. She knows he's not really talking to her, just anyone with any understanding of how he feels, but she can pretend he needs her just the same.

"Harry..." she whispers gently, placing a hand on his arm. It is the first time they've touched and she feels herself stop breathing. _No_, she tells herself, _you have to be there_.

He slams his fist into the wall, making Susan jump. "I'm supposed to be able to save them!" he barks, his voice hoarse.

It is then that Susan works up the courage to tell him something she has wanted to say since she wrote him that card in first year.

"Harry," she whispers, afraid her voice will fall out if she goes much louder, "you're not alone."

He looks at her, stares at her, for several uncomfortable moments, as if she has only just arrived in the room. She will not look away, though they are standing closer than she first realized, and he is looking at her like she isn't real. _I am real_, she wants to scream, _I'm real, and I'm here, and please say something!_

Before she realizes what is happening, his arms are on her waste and his lips are on hers.

His lips are rough and chapped and his kiss is so hard it's almost bruising. He pushes her against the door roughly, and her arms go about his neck because they have no place else to be. He forces her mouth open with his tongue, and pushes and pushes. She can't believe this is actually happening, and can't help thinking, _This isn't how it's supposed to be_...

She pushes the thought from her mind, and kisses back, just as hard, trying to remember the strength that Zacharias's kisses gave her.

He breaks the kiss and starts to kiss her neck and her throat, just as roughly as he did her mouth. He bites the soft skin there, and she gasps. "Harry..." she whispers.

He just growls at her, and she doesn't talk again.

He is leading her to the bed, and tearing at her night gown, and she is enveloped in another bruising kiss, and all she can think is that this is Harry, and she loves him, and she can't believe this is happening, but also that this is not like Zacharias's kisses at all. This is Harry, just Harry, and she loves him.

His skin is rough against hers, and he takes but a moment to step back and look at her. "Susan... I..."

"Harry..." she whispers, and pulls him close to kiss his forehead softly, "it's okay."

He doesn't seem to need anything else, and suddenly he is moving to her and with her, and it hurts, but then so did his kiss. He is rough with her, holding her wrists down on the crimson sheets and biting at her lips and her tongue and her jaw. She wants to wrap him up in everything she is and never let him go, and he wants to devour her.

When it is over, he lays beside her and she strokes his hair and kisses his forehead again and again, and he lays his head on her chest. She is thinking that next time, it will be gentle. Next time, she will take care of him. She was taken by surprise this time, is all, but next time will be better.

She takes off his glasses and lays them on the bedside table for him. "Susan," he whispers to her, and his voice sounds oddly guilty. Susan doesn't say anything, just kisses his forehead in answer. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" she asks, and feels tense, like something is about to break.

"I don't know. Just... please... don't tell Ginny..."

And there it is. With those few words, everything Susan was denying as soon as she walked into the room comes flooding back to her. Harry hadn't needed her, he needed anybody who would come, and Ginny wouldn't come. She should have come. It should have been Ginny, Susan realizes now. Susan was only there because Harry needed to know that there was someone else who was broken in the world, even if he had to break her himself.

Harry falls asleep next to her, and she spends the night crying, whispering "I loved you" to the dark.

* * *

Susan avoids everyone now, because they all seem to be looking at her like they know what she's done. She cannot look at Hannah, or Terry, or especially Ginny. She stands with strangers when she has to be with people, and is alone anytime that she can be. 

One night, she hears someone creep into the room across the hall, and hears Ginny's voice say, "Harry? What - "

"I missed you, Ginny, I'm sorry."

The words would have hurt if Susan hadn't stopped caring a long time ago. After that night, there was nothing. No hope anymore. There had always been hope, until then.

Terry finds her one evening, on the roof, which isn't safe to stand on. Susan goes there because no one else does.

"Doesn't Mrs. Weasley say this is going to break in on the house if anyone comes up here?" Terry wonders in an aloofly polite way, the way someone would talk to a great-uncle they've never met before.

"I don't care," Susan says. Sometimes she hopes it will fall in on them. Sometimes she hopes they lose, and she is killed.

Terry sits down next to her, and draws his knees up to his face in a reflection of the way she's sitting. "Hannah and I are worried about you, Susan," he says in his Terry way, where he remains calm and unflustered and just... _there_.

"I don't care," she repeats. Terry doesn't look at her.

"You can tell me what's happened, you know," he says, "but also you don't have to. I just miss you, that's all."

Susan looks at him, and remembers he was always the one who understood, and he even understood now that she might not want to tell him everything. And he was okay with that.

"Harry loves Ginny, you know," she informs him. "If they survive the war, he's going to marry her, and I... I haven't got any hope."

Terry looks at her, his eyes steady as he says an awful thing. "No... you haven't."

She starts to cry. Terry is just trying to be truthful, Terry was _always_ truthful with her, but she doesn't care, she'd wanted someone to tell her that there was hope, that she still had a chance, because it had been her, not Ginny, the first time, and so it could be her, not Ginny, the rest of the times too.

"You know, Susan," Terry says, and he sounds patient and informative, like someone reading out of an encyclopedia, "Harry will never be in love with you. I'm... I'm sorry, but it's the truth. But it's not because you're not good enough for him, it's because... well... you're not _right_ for him. And he's not right for you. He... he doesn't understand what it means, you know? To give yourself to one person completely. He has so many people he cares about, and... you... you need someone who will care about you more than anyone in the world."

Susan has stopped sobbing, and thinks back to the day Terry asked her to Hogsmeade. She thinks of Zacharias telling her that Terry had demanded he be a good date, and on the train when Mandy had said she was all he thought about.

And she thinks about all the times she had wanted to hex people for him. When she had set her Patronus on Michael Corner's. She thinks about the way she swore she'd always be there for him, since the day he sat with them on the train in first year, and she thinks that perhaps... perhaps he was really who she needed...

And then she stops thinking and starts kissing and he kisses back, so gently and politely and Terry-like that it makes her laugh. And she laughs and doesn't stop laughing until they are called down to dinner.

* * *

After the Final Battle, as it has come to be called, things turn somewhat back to normal. It will never be completely normal again, now that so many people are dead. Sally-Anne. Padma Patil. Professor Flitwick. He was the worst for Susan, who fought beside him much of the battle, and fought harder to protect his body. His wife cried for hours when Susan told her. 

"Did he teach you?" asked the tiny, little woman, who Professor McGonagall said was a perfect match for Professor Flitwick.

"Yes, he... he taught me a lot," Susan told her, holding Terry's hand through it all. Terry couldn't speak - Professor Flitwick was his favorite teacher.

"He loved you students... he always told me that who he was fighting for... to give you all a chance." She gave a laugh through her tears, and asked Susan to come visit an old woman sometimes.

Susan visits her every Sunday, with Terry and a new engagement ring.

Hannah and Ernie were married a week after the Final Battle, though a hex had left a gash deep in Ernie's face, all along his cheek and down his jaw. Hannah doesn't care. Hannah would never care about something that silly. At Christmas that year, Ernie goes rigid and stares out the window for hours. Hannah says it's an effect of the curse. Ernie's much more contemplative now.

Susan still thinks he'll be Minister of Magic, and tells Hannah so. The thought makes Hannah smile.

Justin and Lavender Brown are seeing each other - they met during the Battle, and Justin saved her life. They sit in corners and whisper to each other, and just smile, sometimes with tears in their eyes. Susan likes to see him happy.

Zacharias shows up at her doorstep one night as she and Terry and a few friends are sitting down to dinner. "Susan..." he says slowly, "I feel like I should have been there... for you... for everybody... I'm sorry..."

All Susan can do is smile and hug him, because he was her first kiss, and he was the one who taught her she could be powerful. "Come in, Zacharias," she says, taking his arm, "we're just sitting down to dinner. Have you met Pansy Parkinson?"

It had surprised everyone when Pansy, Draco, and Theodore Nott had broken ranks at the Battle and started fighting for the Order. Soon many other Slytherins began fighting for them too. Professor McGonagall said that might have been what won the Battle for them.

Pansy gives Zacharias a sneer that could rival his own, and Susan can tell he's stricken. She gives Terry and Anthony and happy look over Zacharias's head, and thinks things could be better. Easier.

Terry opens his bookshop in Hogsmeade, as was Ernie's suggestion. He and Anthony are partners, and Susan suggests having more than magic books - perhaps some Muggle classics, something light. Terry instantly begins stocking the shelves with Dickens and Austen and Tolstoy. _The Lord of the Rings_ is an instant sell-out.

Harry comes into the shop sometimes, mostly to buy gifts for Hermione Granger, Susan assumes. Hermione comes in a lot, and Susan is positive that she knows what happened between Susan and Harry. But Susan doesn't care anymore. Terry has forgiven her, and she is _happy_ now.

The conversations with Harry are not even strained anymore. Susan won't let them be. After all, he was her first love. She doesn't want to lose all of him, just because she no longer loves him.

After all, he saved them all, as the scar on his arm shows. And the scar in his eyes.

Susan even invites him to her and Terry's wedding, six months after the Final Battle. She invites everybody who is still alive and has ever been in her life. It is the first real gathering of them all since that night when so many people died. Harry should be there, and Ginny too.

As Susan walks down the aisle, on her father's arm, she watches Terry. His eyes are brimming with tears, and his glasses are slipping down his nose, and he looks very handsome in his dress robes. He was always there for her, always understood, always hugged her tighter than anybody else. And even though she knows Harry is sitting somewhere near the back, even though Zacharias and Pansy are holding hands near the aisle, and Hannah is grinning at her from the bridesmaids, and Ernie looks like he might start sobbing, and her mother is already there... Susan has eyes only for Terry. The Boy Who Was Always There.

When she reaches him, she whispers, "You should have been in Hufflepuff, you know."

He raises an eyebrow in what she's sure he thinks is a dashing way, but actually makes his glasses slip down farther. "Why's that?"

She shrugs as she pushes his glasses back for him, smiling. "Because. You know what loyalty is."

**The End.**


End file.
